Brawl leaves Dodgers' Greinke with a broken collarbone

(MCT) SAN DIEGO _ Carlos Quentin put a real charge into Thursday's night's game at Petco Park, one that could have longstanding implications for the Dodgers.

When Zack Greinke hit him with a sixth-inning pitch, San Diego's Quentin sprinted to the mound, igniting a two-part, bench-clearing melee in the Dodgers' eventual 3-2 victory in the rubber game of a three-game series.

The incident left Greinke with a broken collarbone. It was not immediately clear Thursday night how long he'll be out.

Juan Uribe's pinch-hit home run to left field in the eighth inning off Luke Gregerson (1-1) gave the Dodgers a lead that Ronald Belisario, Paco Rodriguez and Kenley Jansen preserved for fellow reliever Matt Guerrier (1-0).

But, besides the injury to one of the Dodgers' top starting pitchers, the fallout from the violent Quentin-Greinke encounter could lead to MLB discipline for the Dodgers' Matt Kemp and Jerry Hairston Jr. (as well as Quentin).

Greinke took the brunt of the 235-pound Quentin's force after a 20-yard sprint with his left shoulder and ribcage, and was eventually escorted from the mound by Dodgers trainer Sue Falsone.

Since 2008, Quentin leads all of baseball by being hit by 97 pitches, including two previously by Greinke – who was not ejected after the altercation, but was taken out after the second flareup, following an 88-pitch, five-inning outing that he mostly dominated.

That was well shy of the 105-pitch limit Dodgers manager Don Mattingly had said was Greinke's ceiling for his second start.

Greinke threw his glove down and met Quentin with a body block, leading with his non-throwing shoulder.

The Padres left fielder bull-dogged Greinke to the grass as Dodgers catcher A.J. Ellis tackled Quentin from behind, and a mass of humanity piled on.

Before order could be completely restored, the benches and bullpens emptied a second time, as Dodgers reserve Hairston charged the San Diego dugout before he was restrained by Ellis.

Kemp was the next angry Dodger, and he was escorted away by Josh Beckett – but not before Kemp put his hands on an umpire and earned an ejection, along with Hairston and Quentin.

The Dodgers led, 2-1, and Greinke was cruising when the fracas broke out.

Former starter Chris Capuano, summoned from the bullpen to replace Greinke, wild-pitched Quentin's pinch-runner, Alexi Amarista, to second, then allowed a tying RBI single Yonder Alonso.

In the first inning, Adrian Gonzalez hit his first homer of the season, and his first-ever against his longtime team, a 378-foot drive to right off a Jason Marquis 2-0 pitch with Carl Crawford aboard. Marquis later buzzed Kemp with a high, inside pitch.

The Padres halved their deficit in the fourth as Jedd Gyorko scored on a wild pitch.

BILLINGSLEY UPDATE

Ellis said he knew while catching Chad Billingsley's bullpen session before Wednesday's game that great things could happen.

"What he did last night was the Chad of old," Ellis said of the right-hander's six-inning season debut against the Padres, when Billingsley allowed one run on five hits in a 4-3 victory. "It was a great performance, and it says a lot about him."

Billingsley hurt his elbow in September, but passed on surgery that would've delayed his return likely until next season. So far, the decision is a successful one.

"He had a good fastball and his curveball was really sharp," Ellis said.